Sea of Dreams

  * * *

  When I woke up again, the sky that I could see through the now-open window was just starting to turn from gray to blue. Someone was holding my hand. I could hear something else. “Are they singing?” Zach asked softly.

  “Hush,” Kara said.

  It was a song. It was a song unlike any I had ever heard before. The eerie resonance wailed through the room and surrounded me like a warm blanket. I felt the sting of the needle in my arm as I moved slightly, but the sound seemed to drown out the feeling of pain, and I didn’t really mind. My shoulder was a dull throb that pulsated underneath the cotton wool that pressed down upon me. Unexpectedly, my chest hurt, as well, as if someone had been sitting on top of it.

  At first I didn’t understand what was happening. I looked slowly around and then I saw the first of the firefly pixies. They were perched on every surface of the room. There were a few settled on the quilted blanket atop my abdomen and my legs. Kara was crouched motionlessly at the foot of the bed. Zach was to my right side, the tubing that Kara used to transfuse his blood was still connected to my arm. Blood was still flowing between us. His hand rested on top of mine; his fingers were curled around my palm, emphasizing the difference between the sizes.

  Their uncanny song continued for a moment and then it unexpectedly stopped. One of the little creatures buzzed around my face, and I resisted the urge to gently shoo it away. Its tiny eyes studied me for the longest second as if making certain that I was improved and then it zipped away. The remainder of the group launched into the air en masse and vanished down the hallway in a torrent of green light. Their buzzing sounds slowly faded.

  The world was still a fuzzy, distant place. But I no longer felt as though my life was slipping away. The truth be told, all I could wonder was, why me? Why again?

  “Zach,” Kara muttered, looking at my face. They hadn’t known I was awake again.

  Zach stirred and bent over me, careful not to twist the tubing. “Sophie?” he asked tentatively.

  “Why did they come back?” I asked carefully, my words were slurred.

  Swallowing convulsively, Zach visibly grappled with his answer. Finally, he said, “You died. For about a minute, you died. Kara and I gave you CPR. But we didn’t think…”

  Even Kara choked. “We thought you were a goner, kid,” she uttered hoarsely. “I don’t believe I’ve had a worse moment in my life. You won’t believe how hard I prayed for you to take another breath.”

  “We were doing CPR on you when they came back,” Zach said as quietly as he could. “They were with us when you started to breathe again. Then we got the transfusion started about an hour ago. When the sun started to come up, they started to sing.”

  “Like a lullaby,” I whispered.

  “Sure, hon,” Kara said. “Go back to sleep, Sophie. We’ll be here.”

  So I did.